Many Western Mass. stocks faring well despite stock market gyrations

SPRINGFIELD - Who could be more trustworthy in this economy than Mr. Monopoly and a small-town banker who never had any use for subprime lending?

That's evidently what some investors are thinking.

Some stocks of local interest, including Hasbro Inc., which makes Monopoly and other games in an East Longmeadow factory, and most local publicly traded banks seem to be either holding their value or gaining as the rest of Wall Street tanks.

Brian Q. Corridan, owner of Corridan & Co., an investment firm in Springfield, said local bank stocks are strong because they stayed away from making the risky subprime home mortgage loans that are getting larger financial institutions into trouble. On the whole, local banks are also well capitalized, he said.

"When the rest of the world is sinking," Leo R. Sagan Jr., Westfield Bank CFO, said, Westfield Bank hasn't had to foreclose on a loan in more than an year and less than 1 percent of the bank's loans are delinquent. However, there is a realistic fear that delinquencies will rise if the economy gets worse and businesses fail, Sagan said.

Westfield Financial, the bank's parent company, closed at $10.08 cents a share, up 15 cents on the day and higher than the $9.60 per share the stock was worth at the start of the year.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp, parent of Berkshire Bank, closed at $28.80 a share, up 98 cents on the day and up from $25.85 at the first of the year.

Chicopee Bancorp, parent of Chicopee Savings Bank, closed at $13.25 on the day, down 15 cents but up from $11.90 at the start of the year.

New Alliance Bancshares, parent of New Alliance Bank, closed at $13.32 a share, down 13 cents from Friday but up from $11.35 at the first of the year.

Peoples United Financial, parent of the Bank of Western New England, closed at $17.73 a share Monday, down 52 cents from Friday but slightly ahead of its $17.37 price in January.

United Financial Bancorp, parent of United Bank with headquarters in West Springfield, closed at $14.76 a share, unchanged from Friday. The price was up from $10.99 at the beginning of this year.

Even banks that are up for the year had a rocky Monday, though.

Corridan said some financial stocks are taking short-term hits simply because they are financial stocks. When a pension or mutual fund tells its computers to cut the number of financial stocks in the portfolio by 15 percent, the computer does that across the board.

"It doesn't say, 'Oh but here is Chicopee Savings and they are a pretty good little bank, let's keep them,'" Corridan said.

Hasbro spokeswoman Patricia J. Riso said the company has posted good earnings and the majority of its toys and games are priced to sell for less than $20, a plus in a cash-strapped Christmas season.

Hasbro closed at $31.72 compared with about $34 last week and $21.73 a share back in January.